#Inflation soared under President #Biden in 2021 & 2022, as the #economy emerged from the #pandemic recession [that began under Trump]. Its causes were complex, including snarled #SupplyChains, stimulative policies by the #FederalReserve &, to a degree, federal fiscal policies incl’ing #Covid relief bills signed by #Trump &…Biden.
What #Republicans call “Bidenflation” has become one of the president’s biggest liabilities in his rematch w/ #Trump. In response, #Biden has sought to simultaneously cheer #progress in #stabilizing or bringing down #prices — #growth has slowed sharply from a yr ago — while acknowledging the pain #voters still feel in their pocketbooks.
Biden has also attacked #corporations for pricing practices in certain sectors such as meatpacking, snack foods, concert tickets & gasoline.
The federal #government is facing a dwindling window to #regulate the use of #ArtificialIntelligence in campaigns before the #2024election. The #FCC chair announced a plan last month to require #politicians to disclose #AI use in TV & radio #ads. But the prop is facing opposition from a #FEC top ofcl, which has been considering its own new rules on AI campaign use.
The dispute — along w/ #inaction at the #FEC & #Congress — could leave #voters w/limited federal #protections against those who use #AI to #mislead the public or mask their #political msgs…. New #generativeAI technologies have already proved capable of creating uncannily realistic images.
“AI has the potential to be very influential in our #elections, & right now, there’s a total vacuum of #regulation on this issue,” said Ellen Weintraub, the Democratic vice chair of the FEC.
The case has been frozen… since early Dec as a series of courts in Washington have considered an expansive & novel (BS) claim he has raised in his own defense: that he is #immune to all of the charges in the #indictment because he claims they arose from ofcl acts as president.
What the #OhioRepublicans are demanding isn’t “compromise,” but #extortion. Again, there is a clean bill ready to go in the state house, allowing #Biden’s name to be added to the #ballot. It’s a very simple matter to pass that bill, without any additional provisions. #Republicans are simply taking advantage of the situation in order to advance their own interests to the detriment of Ohio #voters.
Walter Shapiro reflects on his decision in 1968 to vote third-party rather than to vote for Hubert Humphrey. This was, he now sees, a "self-righteous decision to opt out of the two-party system" he made "out of misplaced antiwar passions."
And, of course, his third-party protest vote enabled tricky Dick Nixon, a warmonger if there ever was a warmonger, to gain the White House.
The date of the general election seems designed to disenfranchise young people as much as possible, since most university students who vote do so at their term-time address. Universities are in recess on 4 July & many students will be at their parents’ or between university accommodation. Please make sure anyone you know in this situation registers at an appropriate address, preferably with a postal vote.
#MichaelCohen understood the power of a supermarket #tabloid, which would reach #voters "at the cash register of so many supermarkets & bodegas." He testifies: "If we can place positive stories about Mr. Trump, that would be beneficial. He adds: "And if we could place negative stories about some of the other candidates, that would also be beneficial."
"Mike Johnson's lies about illegal immigrants voting are] such a toxic mess of nonsense and racism that even debunking it stabs little daggers into democracy. ...
The only point of this kind of racist tripe is to preemptively explain why Trump lost."
Sometimes I wish just one Republican state would leave the US to found it's own country.
Just one, which could try out all the book burning, closed borders, fewer women's rights, religios politics, non-scientific medicine — so everyone could really see, what that leads to.
For years, politicians in Europe blamed everything on the EU, but I can assure you, when Britain left our union and became a country with considerable challenges, it crushed the EU blame game in many countries.
Now, I have always voted since I was first eligible in the '80s. But I want to post a reminder that there are massive systemic issues with our voting system.
We can each do our individual best, while also recognizing that systemic issues do not have individual solutions.
We do not have "apathetic" voters, we have massively, intentionally disenfranchised voters.
Mark Jacob reports that the less people know, the more they like Trump: "Republican voters find comfort in their intentional ignorance. ...
A new poll shows that people who don’t follow political news at all favor Trump over Biden, 53% to 27%.
As Jacob concludes, "A lot of Trump supporters are not really voting for Trump. They’re voting for their own fears and prejudices" — of which Trump is a channel.
"This is the world that #SamuelAlito and his friends in the #SupremeCourt have created, and this is the world they want for us....Ladies of America, #women#voters of America - is this good enough for you?"
Tampa Democrat Andrew #Warren has been locked in a protracted legal battle with the Republican governor after he was #suspended from his elected position of #stateattorney in 2022.
The Tampa #prosecutor suspended from his job by Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday he would ask voters to return him to his post.
In #Arizona, #AbortionRights advocates have said they gathered enough signatures to create a #BallotMeasure that will ask #voters whether to amend the state constitution to prohibit any “#law, regulation, policy or practice” interfering w/ #abortion before fetal viability or later if needed to “protect the life or physical or mental #health of the pregnant individual.”
"Eric Hovde, a Republican candidate for Senate in Wisconsin, floated the bizarre idea that people in nursing homes should be disenfranchised because they’re simply too close to death to be 'in a point to vote.'”
The #republicans have been in power in #Texas for over 25 years. They’re running ads telling #voters to #vote for them so they can fix what’s broken. The #gop broke Texas and now they want you to re-elect them to fix what they broke. Really?
As #Elections Loom, Congressional Maps Challenged as Discriminatory Will Remain in Place
With control of the House of Representatives hanging in the balance, the time-consuming appeals process means elections in multiple districts will take place using maps that have been challenged as discriminatory to #voters of color.
Known for his improvised & volatile performances, #Trump is now ending many of his rallies w/ churchlike ritual & casting his prosecutions as persecution.
The meditative ritual might appear incongruent w/the raucous epicenter of the nation’s #conservative movement, but #Trump’s political creed stands as one of the starkest examples of his effort to transform the #GOP into a kind of #ChurchOfTrump. His insistence on absolute #devotion & #fealty can be seen at every level of the party, from #Congress to the #RNC to rank-&-file #voters.